Could they pick up deserved medals? Well it might not necessarily be Gold with In form Brazilian and Spanish teams. Then again in knockout competitions any one can dream…

The dream though has better odds for the Women’s football under the experienced guidance of Hope Powell, with the chance of watching the great Women’s Goalkeeping talents of Linkoping’s Karen Bardsley and Everton Ladies’ Rachel Brown.

For years Women’s football has been overshadowed by the Men’s but could the Women now get one over the Men by getting the Gold they deserve?

With the Goalkeepers in both teams they certainly both stand a chance of keeping it tight at the back so they should have the confidence to attack and get the goals needed – so both indeed have every chance of success… So come on Great Britain lets all cheer on these Great Britons!

So we have heard who UEFA think were the best Goalkeepers in the tournament and we have seen Ireland’s Shay Given (http://wp.me/p27nBU-fW) and Spain’s Iker Casillas (http://wp.me/p27nBU-g5) as the best from the Stats, with Iker outshining them all by collecting 5 awards in the stats, but lets face it the award that really matters is the one voted on by you, my blog readers… and this time it wasn’t won by Iker Casillas.

You voted the Best Goalkeeper of the Tournament as Germany’s Manuel Neuer

image from commons.wikimedia.org

A great choice by you all, unlucky twice in 2012 , missing out on penalties in the Champions League for Bayern Munich against Chelsea and then seeing an inspired Mario Balotelli put two goals past him so that Italy progressed to the final. Not many Goalkeepers would have coped with Mario that day – he was quite super… But then again so was Manuel through out the tournament. So congratulations Manuel Neuer!

I looked at the number of shots Spain’s Iker Casillas had to deal with on goal and wondered if he was actually one of the best Goalkeepers in Europe as it seemed that he hadn’t necessarily been tested. However when I looked started calculating the stats from the tournament I could believe my eyes when he almost wiped the floor of awards on offer… I say almost as there was only one he did not get, which was the busiest keeper, but then with the Spanish defence and an average team possession of approximately 60% he was never likely to be… but he showed just why indeed he deserved to be classed as one of the best Goalkeepers in Europe and indeed the World…

The Golden Glove – Most Clean Sheets – Iker had 5 clean sheets in total from the 6 games he played, with the next best being 2 clean sheets from 4 other Goalkeepers (England’s Joe Hart, Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon, Portugal’s Rui Patricioand Greece’s Michalis Sifakis);

Clean Sheets vs Games Played – An impressive 83.33% with the next best being Greece’s Michalis Sifakisat 66.67%;

Clean Sheets vs Shots on Goal – Even though (as we previously saw in the last post) Iker had only 16 shots at goal to cope with, with keeping 5 clean sheets meant that he topped the charts at 31.25%, with the next best being again Greece’s Michalis Sifakisand Portugal’s Rui Patricioat 13.33%;

Meanest Keeper Part 1 : Goals Conceded vs Shots on Goal – Iker only conceded 1 goal in the whole tournament meaning his ratio was at 6.25 %, with the next best being England’s Joe Hartat 9.09%; and

Meanest Keeper Part 2 : Goals Conceded vs Games Played – this has got to be the greatest stat of the lot with playing 6 games and conceding only 1 means that Iker has a phenomenally low 0.17%. No other Goalkeeper could come close with the next best being Poland’s Przemyslaw Tytonat 0.67%.

I think I speak for many Goalkeeping fans when I say Wow – What a great Goalkeeper. The stats say it all – he most definitely deserves the accolades!

In the previous posting http://wp.me/p27nBU-fP it was seen that UEFA had chosen their 3 goalkeepers of the tournament. However what did the stats say… who are the goalkeepers that the stats showed to deserve recognition…

Euro 2012 Stats Part One: The busiest Goalkeeper of the tournament (Shots on goal per game)

Sometimes you have to feel for these Goalkeepers as they have a barrage of shots on goal, meaning that either their team is up against huge fire power or the defence isn’t doing their job or perhaps the team are not taking the action further up the field, meaning that the Goalkeeper has to deal with a lot more shots on goal, which makes the job of keeping a clean sheet that much harder (student Goalkeepers should take note, that it can be difficult to keep clean sheets in such situations – even for the vastly experienced Goalkeepers).

With Spain keeping the ball more than any other team and having one of the best defences, it is unlikely to see Iker Casillas in the top 5 of this stat…

So the first award, is for the busiest Euro 2012 Goalkeeper and there was none busier than Ireland’s Shay Given who had an incredible average of 10 shots on goal per game. He most definitely deserves this award as throughout the tournament Shay had to put up with tremendous back pain whilst still pulling off some great saves in the processes.

Shay Given was closely followed by England’s Joe Hart who not only from stats claimed to be the second busiest keeper (at an average 8.25 shots per game) but in the last match against Italy had more passes than any other England player… some feat…

So Euro 2012 is now over, with Spain crowned the kings of Europe again. What a tournament – not just for the dazzling goals and outfield action but for the Goalkeeping too!

We saw fantastic examples of Goalkeeping and then again some not so good examples with Arsenal’s Worjciech Szczesny seeing red or seeing errors from Goalkeepers who we have recently seen to have had excellent seasons relatively error free. However to jump to the defence of a number of Goalkeepers here, some of these were errors not because they were poor on judgement, that they had to deal with a very unpredictable ball… As Joe Hart experienced and as only one camera angle caught, the ball flew through the air almost ‘wobbling’ in flight. So Goalkeepers had extra factors to deal with in this tournament rather than the obvious ones…

So with the tournament over, UEFA posted their 23 man squad of the tournament, showing that they felt the 3 best goalkeepers had been:

Iker Casillas;

Gianluigi Buffon; and

Manuer Neuer.

3 quality Goalkeepers who I agree deserve recognition, however what did my followers think and who do the tournament stats say were the best?

There is still time for you all to vote for your favourite, with polls closing this week. I shall then provide an insight into who else deserves our recognition from this great tournament…

There have been cracking examples of great Goalkeeping… oh and some not so good examples… across this competition. So have any of the Goalkeepers playing at these European Championships stood out for you as of a different class to all the others at the tournament?

I have now opened up the poll for you to start register your votes as to who you think has been the best.

Please may I ask you to cast the vote based on reviewing all of the Goalkeepers and try not to vote for them because it is your home nation… unless of course they honestly deserve it!

This poll shall close soon after the tournament at which point the results shall be announced.

I look forward to seeing who you choose and of course please feel free to comment as to your reasons why…

So with this the final part, you have now been introduced to the 48 Goalkeepers at these European Championships. Only a small selection of these will get their chance, unless of course they get sent-off or injured, then we will see a few more…

Will the French va va voom or the power houses of Schevchenko (Ukraine) and Ibrahimavic (Sweden) take the action away from goal and further up the field, giving their Goalkeeper a break… Hmm… I doubt it, as all group games so far have produced much action with very few clean sheets… Or perhaps could England’s Joe Hart repeat his Manchester City form that got him the Golden Glove Award for his impressive 17 clean sheets in the Premiership or will England’s defence do him no favours… We shall wait and see…

This group boast a lot of experience Goalkeepers with all the teams Number 1’s having over 90 caps each. Will experience count? Or will we see more un-characteristic mistakes from the more experienced? So will any of these be your pick of the tournament…

This is the group they are calling the ‘Group of Death’ albeit we are not expecting anyone to lose life, however we are expecting some major casualties. Will this be the group that we see the tournaments best goalkeeper come from as they do battle against some stern opposition? Will any of these be your pick of the tournament…

So after the first round of games for this Group we have seen a few examples of great goalkeeping and some not so great – including a sending-off and a penalty save. But will any of these be your pick of the tournament…